Time

As someone busy about God's work I have often become impatient with delays and hold-ups of various kinds. "Here I am in God's service," I have thought. "The King's business requires haste, and this trivial problem is holding me up!"

Often this is the lower nature getting the better of me. It is all too easy to think the world should stop for me when I am on pastoral duties, especially when I am behind schedule.

Recently I have caught myself becoming impatient even when at a loose end, when there is nothing to rush for. Something has delayed me and I have become really cross. Then I ask myself, "This rush of emotional energy is completely pointless! I have no deadlines to meet today!"

God's work is urgent, of course. Jesus taught His disciples that there were only so many hours in the day, and He and they must keep working while daylight lasted (John 9:4). It grieves me to see many churches and church leaders self-indulgent in the extreme and lacking in urgency. Yet we look for a day when the march of time will no longer be allowed to dictate our lives:

Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.

- Frances Ridley Havergal

Choices revisited

Back in October last year I reflected on choices. Since then one door slammed firmly shut in my search for a pastorate, but I again find myself with two churches in different parts of the country seriously considering me.

Circumstances outside my control may again narrow the choice down at any time. But the present happy position leads me to reflect once more on the Christian view of choice.

In the affluent West we are spoiled for choice. The supermarkets are brim full of options. For almost every commodity there are at least two alternatives. People have become used to picking and mixing, even demanding it as a right. It gives them a glowing feeling of being in control.

Towards the end of his career as leader of Israel, Joshua challenged the Israelites, "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve". He mentioned a selection of alternative gods, but in reality the choice was simple: Jehovah, God of Israel, or the rest. To choose Jehovah God was to choose service with dignity. To choose any other god was to opt for slavery. The choice for the Christian is: do as you like, and suffer spiritually as a result, or serve the interests of the living God and grow tall.

It is possible to make a genuine mistake in choosing between two alternatives. I guess I've done that many times in the past. However, as a friend said, "God does not punish anyone for making a mistake". Please pray with me that God will make the way ahead crystal clear. That way I can serve Him confidently for the rest of my working life, in thankfulness for all that His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, did for me.